KNOWING ONES GET

NZ Truth, Issue 1305, 18 December 1930, Page 13

KNOWING ONES GET

KNOCKED BACK

ROMFORD BACKERS UPENDED BY AN OUTSIDER

FORM HORSES FAIL TO DO THE JOB

(From ' ' N.Z. Truth s Special Auckland Representative.) " Romford is a certainty, but keep that to yourself, ' ' was a whisper that came to "Truth" at Waipa; on Saturday.

THE race was the last of the day, the seven-furlorigs Ohaupo, but the knowing ones evidently failed to count on Miss Albyh as a possibility to upset the "good thing." They were probably justified on Miss Albyn's form at Takapuna, where she failed to gain minor place honors m a race for hacks which had not won any event worth 75sovs. to the winner at time of entry. That form did not look good for Miss Albyn's prospects of defeating horses of the calibre of Volimond, Mosque, Yalsier, and Vandyke. Therefore, Miss Albyn's chance was treated lightly, and the "heads" piled it on Romford as though Volimond, Mosque and Vandyke were not m the race. _ It was all so mysterious, this piling of the cash on Romford, but once the field was despatched it was seen there was solid reason for Romford's support. He was one of the mo3t conspicuous to begin. However, he was not quite so smart as Miss Albyn, was kept hard at it all the way, and when it .came to the deciding point, 'Keith Voitre's mount stayed on better than Romford's supporters expected and finally won' by 'a, length. " ' It was ... a fair dinkum upset,, though Romford's fate admirers

certainly saved most of their money. The time was a shade worse than. Te\Hoia, With 9.8, registered m the hack seven earlier m the day, and "Truth" wants to see Miss Albyn defeat the same class again before we will be fully convinced. Some of the riders of horses with more pronounced and appealing public form were not over alert m the early part, and apparently they were expecting the leaders to come back. This is the only possible explanation to offer, but it would have been ever so much better had the stipendiary steward decided that the race was worthy of some attention. The rush of money for Romford when betting was m progress and then the inability of some of the horses to live up to expectations, not to mention form, was surely 'sufficient for the official m charge to give the defeated bunch a chance to explain why, an explanation' they no doubt would have only been too pleased to render. There is an inclination on the part of stipes to just formally preside over concluding races. It is the custom to get "the last" over -as quickly as possible to . enable the crowd to get on the homeward trip, and last Saturday wasnot the first occasion on which a stipe has been satisfied when there were features sticking out like the camel's hump. ■■'„ ':■